All Forum Posts by: Kyle Titus

@Douglas Gratz love the line where you say "with all due respect" and then continue on to demean and insult the person who gave advice on a platform where you solicited the advice. Even if you succeed with this venture you have lost respect from many on here who have simply stumbled onto this thread or provided advice. (Not that you care, obviously)

That all makes sense and sounds sweet. I am curious as to how the STR market is throughout the winter. I know that down in Homer their spaces stay booked pretty consistently year-round but I don't know that Kenai/Soldotna has that same draw in the winter. I have heard of people doing some STR stuff out in Nikiski near the refinery and all of that but I am not sure how well they actually do.

I just started mine this summer on a whim and it has been pleasantly surprising. I only have two units up right now but between the two I only have 2 vacant nights for the month of July and I listed them really late in the season. My units are at a pretty low price point with a small 4 bedroom unit being at about $180/night and a small studio being at $80/night. Still pretty lucrative in comparison to the long term rents that I would get. 

That is awesome and good to hear. Are you sticking to long term rentals on the 4-plex? On the SFH do you plan on using it as a STR in the summer only or year round?

@Timothy Chi I know this post is quite old and I assume you have already found an agent but I wanted to at least reach out! I am a fairly new agent and just got my license in December of last year but I have been investing in real estate both SFR and multi-family properties since 2015. I currently own a 7-plex in Kenai that I use as both a short term rental and long term rental depending on the season. Let me know if I can be of any assistance!

@Joshua Mitchell I am not sure if you already pulled the trigger on this property or not but it sounds pretty sweet. I live in Kenai and own a 7-plex here. I purchased it last October and I have recently started using it as a short term rental on AirBnB during the summer months. I think that the market for short term rentals up here in the summer is great but in the winter it mostly dries up. I do think that there is a good middle ground to use the properties as short term rentals in the summer and long term rentals in the winter. 

@Blake Schreckhise a disclosure had to be sent over to the seller because they had to cooperate somewhat in the exchange process. I don't know all of the ins and outs of that process but the third party exchange service that I used had a document that had to be signed by both the seller and myself. There may be another way of doing it and if I end up using a 1031 exchange in the future I will for sure attempt to conceal that information until later in the transaction simply for some more negotiating power.

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $449,000
Cash invested: $176,000

7-Plex in Kenai, AK. Mortgage, insurance and taxes total is $2,400/month. During long term rental season average rent is $6,500 and during the short term rental season it is closer to $10,000. Expenses generally range from $1,000/month in the winter to about $1,500 during the summer. It is self-managed and I take care of all of the cleaning and turnover for the short term rentals.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I have done smaller multifamily properties in the past with a duplex and fourplex. I had a fourplex under contract when this came available and decided to move onto this. It was about the same price with a much higher ceiling when it came to gross rental income. It also offered a 4 bed 1.5 bath apartment that I was able to owner occupy which was convenient.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

It popped up on Trulia and I sent it over to the agent that I was using at the time.

How did you finance this deal?

I went through a 1031 exchange from a fourplex that I owned and I used a special loan program but still ended up putting almost 40% down because of the appraised value and what the bank felt comfortable loaning on it. I got into a 25 year mortgage with a 5.5% interest rate.

How did you add value to the deal?

I have remodeled three of the units and was immediately able to raise rents. When I purchased the property only 3 units were occupied with rents totaling $2,450/month. Currently all of the units are occupied and the long term rents from September - May are $6700/month and from June - August they are about $10,000/month.

What was the outcome?

So far, so good. It is producing a steady stream of cash flow each month and is relatively problem free other than occasional maintenance.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The 1031 really pigeonholed me when it came to the negotiation phase. It didn't leave me with much power because the seller knew that if I backed out of the deal I would lose a significant amount of money to taxes.
This also took place during COVID which led to complications with trying to find a contractor and someone to complete work as they were all extremely busy.

@Michael S.

Hey Mike I also purchased Brandon's book through audible and did not receive an access code. Can you help me out with that? Thanks in advance for your time!

@Craig Pfeifer I will look her up and connect with her. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

@Kyle Godbout

@Kyle Godbout  Thanks! Awesome, congrats on the properties you've got going and good luck with your goal! I will definitely reach out with any questions I've got.

@Collin Schwartz When you say conversion you are speaking of a current single family that is able to be converted, correct? I would love to to find something like that but I've mostly been looking into the built for purpose multi-family. I'm semi new to investing so my knowledge on conversion is very basic. Is the process of switching zoning to multi-family a fairly simple one? I guess I've always thought it is quite involved and far from a guarantee. 

My wife and I will be relocating to Omaha, Nebraska shortly and are starting fresh with no real ties to the area. We are looking for recommendations on possible lenders, brokers, real estate agents, home inspectors and so on. We are hoping to try and get a head start as we move into that area and purchase something shortly after arriving. I'm mostly looking at doing an owner occupied multifamily using a VA loan and house hack. Any information and/or references would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!